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Edge Aids N.O. Musicians
In hurricane's wake, U2 guitarist brings instruments to Gulf Coast musicians
U2 guitarist the Edge and producer Bob Ezrin have teamed with Gibson Guitar, the Guitar Center and MusiCares to create Music Rising, an initiative that provides instruments to Gulf Coast musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
"New Orleans is a crucible for great music," says the Edge, who fell in love with the city during U2's 1981 Boy tour. "The idea that it would be just a place of history for music is awful to me. Coming from Dublin in the Seventies, when music was something you had to search out, I'd never dreamt that somewhere like New Orleans could exist. Music was coming out of the walls. It seemed not just a form of escapism, but like it was weaved into everybody's life."
After Hurricane Katrina, the Edge met up with Ezrin -- who heads the board of the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, which donates new and refurbished instruments to school and community music programs -- and they agreed to create a program that would restore music to the ravished city. "We both concluded instantly that the human disaster was indescribable," Ezrin says, "but what was being wiped out at the same time was the culture of the entire region."
Ezrin, who has produced the likes of Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel and the Darkness, had been contacted by Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz and Guitar Center CEO Marty Albertson about a custom Gibson guitar -- details of which are yet to be announced -- they were creating to raise money for flood victims. Albertson and Juszkiewicz pledged a minimum of $1 million from the sale of the guitar to the effort and even agreed to eat the design and manufacturing costs. "I wish every CEO of a major company in America would do even a fraction of what these guys do," Ezrin says.
After Music Rising reaches its primary goal of replacing every single instrument lost to professional musicians in the Gulf Coast region, the program hopes to expand to reach local churches, marching bands and schools. "It's clearly achievable," the Edge says. "Something should be done and not just because New Orleans deserves it, but because the world needs New Orleans."
Those wishing to make donations can do so at musicrising.org.
ANDY GREENE
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/st...2322399359&has-player=true&version=6.0.8.1024
In hurricane's wake, U2 guitarist brings instruments to Gulf Coast musicians
U2 guitarist the Edge and producer Bob Ezrin have teamed with Gibson Guitar, the Guitar Center and MusiCares to create Music Rising, an initiative that provides instruments to Gulf Coast musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
"New Orleans is a crucible for great music," says the Edge, who fell in love with the city during U2's 1981 Boy tour. "The idea that it would be just a place of history for music is awful to me. Coming from Dublin in the Seventies, when music was something you had to search out, I'd never dreamt that somewhere like New Orleans could exist. Music was coming out of the walls. It seemed not just a form of escapism, but like it was weaved into everybody's life."
After Hurricane Katrina, the Edge met up with Ezrin -- who heads the board of the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, which donates new and refurbished instruments to school and community music programs -- and they agreed to create a program that would restore music to the ravished city. "We both concluded instantly that the human disaster was indescribable," Ezrin says, "but what was being wiped out at the same time was the culture of the entire region."
Ezrin, who has produced the likes of Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel and the Darkness, had been contacted by Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz and Guitar Center CEO Marty Albertson about a custom Gibson guitar -- details of which are yet to be announced -- they were creating to raise money for flood victims. Albertson and Juszkiewicz pledged a minimum of $1 million from the sale of the guitar to the effort and even agreed to eat the design and manufacturing costs. "I wish every CEO of a major company in America would do even a fraction of what these guys do," Ezrin says.
After Music Rising reaches its primary goal of replacing every single instrument lost to professional musicians in the Gulf Coast region, the program hopes to expand to reach local churches, marching bands and schools. "It's clearly achievable," the Edge says. "Something should be done and not just because New Orleans deserves it, but because the world needs New Orleans."
Those wishing to make donations can do so at musicrising.org.
ANDY GREENE
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/st...2322399359&has-player=true&version=6.0.8.1024
